50-Word (Comic) Review: 2000AD-Prog 1954- Bad Company Brilliance

Writers and artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 28th October



Dredd concludes Serial//Serial. Villain undetected, which is good. Don’t kill a star. Defoe is rich crooks versus poor crooks, happy enforcers enjoying their work. Bad Company old school art brilliance. Used up dogs of war refuse to hide painful memories with state mandated ‘medication.’ Now that’s something with contemporary parallels.


Rating: 8/10

Bad Company//First Casualties is the undoubted star of 2000AD at the moment. It’s a story that reminds me of the old days, the days when I first fell in love with 2000AD as a kid. The art is old school excellence, very 80’s, very cool. The characters are enjoyable, interesting, a bit wacky and a lot of fun. The story itself has a strong thematic core that resonates with contemporary concerns. It’s about traumatised veterans, and what happens to them when they are no longer of any use to the death cult state. 

The story is dealing with truths that a lot of people don’t even want to think about. The state is organised violence. It programmes young men, turning them into murderers, monsters, and spits them out when they are no longer of any use. Medals, parades and charity concerts cannot hide the truth. Bad Company//First Casualties is a story about what happens to soldiers after the war, and in a 2015 UK society full of traumatised young men returning from illegal foreign wars, it’s as contemporary, relevant and important as a ‘sci-fi’ story in a weekly comic book can get.